Nine commuter rail options get the ax

Friday

Feb 29, 2008 at 12:01 AMFeb 29, 2008 at 11:29 PM

While southeastern Massachusetts residents have been waiting years for commuter rail to link the region to Boston, the first round of cuts from the list plans were made to ensure the ride there is a speedy one.

Will Richmond

While southeastern Massachusetts residents have been waiting years for commuter rail to link the region to Boston, the first round of cuts from the list plans were made to ensure the ride there is a speedy one.

The preliminary list of cuts was posted late Wednesday to the Southcoast Rail Web site. Excluded from the pared-down list were nine options that failed to meet the criteria for quality service and trip time.

Southcoast Rail Project Manager Kristina Egan Thursday said the list of options will continue to be cut through next week as planners prepare for three civic engagement meetings during next month.

Over the next week, Egan said, federal and state officials involved in the planning will be considering if an option can be practically built and what the environmental impacts are of each option.

By the end of the process, Egan said six to 10 options should still exist, representing a broad cross-section of potential routes and transportation modes.

“I’m confident we’ll have a diversity of routes of modes in place as we go into the environmental review,” Egan said. “But at this time we don’t want to finalize anything.”

The preliminary list comes from an original tally of 35 potential alternative routes the planned commuter rail extension could take in connecting the two regions.

Taken out of the shortened list are two options that failed to meet regional mobility requirements and seven options found to be incompatible with quality of service standards.

The reduced list does still maintain options that would send the route through Attleboro or Mansfield, Middleborough, Stoughton and by creating new rails along the highways of Routes 24, 140, 79 and 128.

Taken out of the list following the first cut down are options that include using direct rapid bus routes to the Attleboro, Middleboro/Lakeville and Stoughton stops that already exist.

Each of those routes would have taken more than 100 minutes to complete the trip to Boston, while rail planners were looking to keep trips to a maximum of 98 minutes. That cut-off time was determined after officials timed the length of a trip between New Bedford and Boston at peak traffic times over a two-week period.

Two options were cut because they failed to link Fall River and New Bedford to Boston.

The preliminary results of the shortened list come after rail officials, led by Egan, held three civic engagement meetings in January. Information from those gatherings was considered by the Interagency Coordinating Group.

With the shortened list going back before the public in March, Egan said participants will be asked to take “corridor specific” looks into the remaining options in an effort to provide an opportunity for residents to ask specific questions.

“This will really give people the opportunity to get really in-depth with each of the options,” Egan said.